Money pies, condoms and cherry-pickers: The mad marketing of Manchester startup Caroo
Caroo isn’t your run-of-the-mill jobs platform. In fact, to call the brand ‘different’ would be to do them a disservice. This company is changing everything.
‘Businesses do some pretty weird stuff to market themselves. But we’ll bet you a tenner they’re not as weird as the stuff we do.‘
You don’t get many companies publishing a statement like this on their website. Particularly in the hiring sector.
But Caroo isn’t your run-of-the-mill recruitment company. In fact, to call them ‘different’ would be to do them a disservice.
Between money-stuffed pies and sham parking tickets, some of the PR stunts they’ve pulled in Manchester have been some of the most inventive and peculiar in recent memory.
Led by Managing Director Gareth Peterson, Caroo has packed pastries with £50 notes, distributed fake penalty notes to Manc drivers, and even given away branded condoms.
ADVERTISEMENT
Gareth himself even scaled a cherry-picker and held signs up to office windows that read: ‘Fed up of working here? Search Caroo.’
He also drove an ad van around the city that had ‘Download our app for a BJ* – *better job’ plastered to the side.
ADVERTISEMENT
So, why the weirdness?
Simple.
Caroo wants to align a disruptive product with disruptive marketing campaigns.
ADVERTISEMENT
As a technology business aiming to transform the hiring experience, Caroo is completely reimagining recruitment; offering features that make the process less painful than ever.
The brand has built a recruitment experience that people actually want – using feedback from companies and applicants to steer development.
Features include full anonymity for candidate profiles (meaning your current boss and colleagues can’t snoop on your hunt for a new role) and a newsfeed platform that enables employers to create bespoke content and target it only to relevant professionals.
Caroo has proven a big hit with big brands, too – striking partnerships with Co-Op, Missguided, On the Beach, Gymshark and Adidas.
Caroo MD Gareth and his team have been plotting their next eye-popping stunt as we speak, which remains top secret but is expected to land mid-September.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We believe a disruptive start-up needs a disruptive approach to marketing – so I’m more than happy to lead the charge and embarrass myself,” says Gareth.
“Employers have been getting a raw deal for way too long when it comes to hiring talent – so we created Caroo.
“We understood all the bug bears employers and candidates face during the recruitment process, and built a platform that makes that process much smoother.”
Learn more about the ways in which Caroo have been causing chaos by visiting their website.
You can also discover more by downloading the app here.
Trending
Alex Sanderson summons Rudyard Kipling as Sale Sharks scrape into the semi-finals
Danny Jones
Director of Rugby Alex Sanderson referenced the famous Rudyard Kipling after Sale Sharks managed to book their place in the playoffs of this year’s Gallagher Premiership following a nail-biter of a fixture against Exeter Chiefs.
The Sharks sealed their spot in the semi-finals with a 30-26 win over the Chiefs on Saturday night, with a trio of tries, a singular pen and calmness when it came to conversions proving just enough to make it to full time.
Speaking on the narrow score at Sandy Park, Sanderson himself applauded that same composure during his post-match duties, casually quoting Kipling ahead of the next big game.
Writing on social media after nerves had just about settled, the club simply said: “Apologies for raising the heart rate, Sharks Family… but Saturday we go again.”
Beginning with an expression of that same defiant spirit that has seen them across the line on so many occasions, the 45-year-old told TNT Sports, “We got another Monday in us.”
The Sale Sharks coach went on to add: “So if you can keep your head, when everybody else is losing theirs – I think that’s the old Rudyard Kipling poem – you’re in such a better place on the back of that, knowing what we can fix from the Leicester game and what we can do better from today.”
It’s not every day you hear sportsmen calling up the poetic words of the beloved British-India writer, but it certainly impressed plenty of supporters, though Sanderson has always been popular among fans for his candour and charisma in interviews.
Ultimately, it was Rekeiti Ma’asi-White, Bevan Rodd, Luke Cowan-Dickie and George Ford that the Greater Manchester outfit had to thank for the electrifying finish
You can see how much it meant, clear as day…
Not done yet…
Thank you for your support Sharks Family, it’s truly appreciated!
Sale Sharks will now take on Leicester Tigers (who the local side finished just behind in third place following the result against the Chiefs) in the Premiership semis as they look to get revenge for previous painful meetings
Are you feeling hopeful, Sharks Family?
You can see the full highlights from Sale Sharks’ tense victory over the Exeter Chiefs down below.
Alex Sanderson channelled Rudyard Kipling and Sale scrapped like true Sharks.
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…